EDUCATING FOR EVIDENCE BASED DECISIONS IN ENGINEERING

Amy S. Van Epps

THE VIEW AS LIBRARIAN AND INSTRUCTOR

Associate Professor of Library Science, Engineering Librarian

FIRST-YEAR ENGINEERINGPURDUE UNIVERSITY

• All incoming intended engineering majors• First year students, transfer students

• Approximately 1,600 students each fall• 14 sections• 120 students per section

• 2 classrooms• Studio classroom – 60 laptops supplied• Design lab – 120 laptops supplied

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES9 OVERALL OBJECTIVES

• 2 specific to information literacy skills

• Collect, analyze, and represent data to make informative explanations and persuasive arguments

• Implement iterative processes, rich information gathering, and multiple modes of modeling when solving complex design problems

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVESOBJECTIVES FOR THE TOPIC OF THE DAY

• Compiled from Week 2 and Week 9• Explain why information gathering is an important part of

tan engineering design process• List and apply three criteria for evaluating the

trustworthiness of information resources• Identify and gather necessary elements of a citation• Include complete and correct in-text citations in written

documents (including citations for image sources)• Include a complete reference list in written documents• Explain how research and information sources are

related to making evidence-based engineering decisions

STUDENT TASKSCONTEXT SETTING – WEEK 2, HOMEWORK

• Use and document (with proper citations) at least two high quality external resources to learn three things about judging design competitions in general that are relevant to this problem context.

STUDENT TASKSEVALUATING SOURCES – WEEK 9, IN-CLASS ACTIVITY

• Go to a given URL, evaluate if the information is logical• Empire state building is 12,500 ft tall

• Compare two sites related tot the Engineering Grand Challenges (URLs provided)• Credibility of each

• Information required for writing a webpage citation

POPULATIONCULTURAL DIVERSITY

39.5% - IN 19.3% - International15.1% - IL 56.5% - China26.1% - USA

DATA ANALYSISCONTEXT SETTING – WEEK 2

• 97 of 119 students completed the assignment

• 96 of the 97 responses included references• 23% got most elements included in the citations• 63% got at least one references mostly correct• 14% misidentified type of resource found

• Only 20 of the 96 (~20%) included in-text citations

DATA ANALYSISEVALUATING SOURCES– WEEK 9

• Quality of data (Empire State Building)• 98% correct

• Evaluating websites (Engineering Grand Challenges)• Website1 – 97% correct• Website 2 – 90% correct

• Information for a website citation• 61% correct

DISCUSSIONSIMILARITY OF RESULTS

• Common abilities• Construct references for websites• Identify complete references• Explain why a source could be used• Explain why a source is trustworthy

• Inert knowledge• Can be recalled as taught, unable to be appied

DISCUSSIONMISSING SKILLS

• Inability to determine what has been found• E.g. journal article citation is written as a webpage

• Inability to recognized when they have stated a claim• Can’t tell when information needs a reference

FUTURE CONSIDERATIONSCULTURAL STEREOTYPES

• Additional data analysis divided by demographics citation practices based on cultural background• Inappropriate citation practices much broader than oft

assumed cultural misunderstandings

CONCLUSIONS“CALL TO ACTION”

• Students have the basic skills

• Move our instruction opportunities into teaching that helps students activate this knowledge